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Monday, October 31, 2016

Roadways are public spaces. There is no rule or law that states they are ONLY for cars. Having 12th S Av open to walkers and bicycles, without car traffic, came with a huge sense of freedom. So much fun! I hope these Open Streets occur more often.

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In a similar spirit, there are many roadways in Nashville that will not get sidewalks anytime soon. These are mostly residential side streets. A concept we are pursuing is to designate these low volume streets (in regards to cars) as Walking Districts. We need your help and support on this.

The Gist of a Walking District is:- reduce speed to 20mph- have proper signage to alert drivers that they are entering and exiting a Walking District- apply pedestrian decals to the roadways, similar to bike lane decals, to work as an additional warning to drivers to expect walkers.

We need every voice to be heard. Please take a few minutes to fill out a survey on Walking Districts:

Wednesday, October 26, 2016

When I first moved to my neighborhood in Nashville, 3 years ago, I was out walking when I came upon an older man. He said to me, 'Don't you love to walk here? Feels just like a park'. It was easy to nod and agree given all the amazingly tall trees, pedestrians, dappled light. In many ways, my neighborhood shares a number of qualities with Nashville's Greenways - beautiful scenery and heavy pedestrian activity. Daily, I am thankful for the near constant parade of walkers that pass my house. I have even seen people park their cars, meet up with others, and head out of foot.

I am a morning walker, typically. I have met a wonderful community of people and I enjoy seeing their (and their furry friends') faces every day. It is fun, relaxing and thoroughly enjoyable, and builds a great sense of community. But, that sense of relaxation and pleasure is drastically reduced if for some reason I must walk after work. I walk the side streets mainly but also Golf Club and Hampton which are collector (i.e.: cut-through road) roads. Golf Club and Hampton are the only way to connect to some of the other 'loops' of side streets. Both the side streets and many of the collector roads, such as Golf Club/Hampton, are the same speed limit - 30 mph. This is not so much of an issue in the early morning but, during rush hour, the volume and speed of traffic surges. A relaxing and healthy walk turns into a much more stressful and anxiety provoking event. Sharing the road with afternoon rush hour drivers raises a significant safety concern for our neighborhood residents - adults and children alike.

As many of you know, we have been working closely with our Council Person, Kathleen Murphy, on sidewalking Bowling Av (marked 35mph) for similar safety concerns. This is very slow going work but the good news is that Bowling is now 2nd in line for project development after the tunnel under 37th in Sylvan Park/Sylvan Heights. (Thanks to the neighborhood's vocal support of this project which has made us come this far!) But, as you can imagine, the prospect for our side streets to be sidewalked is essentially zero. As a way to increase walkability on these kind of roadways (side streets and minor collectors such as Golf Club, Hampton) we are pursuing a concept called a Walking District. The germ of this idea was from the gentleman’s quote above. In a park-like neighborhood, why not reduce the speed of passing traffic and increase driver awareness so that pedestrians have a safe and comfortable experience at all times of the day?

The Gist of a Walking District is:

- reduce speed to 20mph

- have proper signage to alert drivers that they are entering and exiting a Walking District

- apply pedestrian decals to the roadways, similar to bike lane decals, to work as an additional warning to drivers to expect walkers.

The Hillsboro / West End neighborhood association is working on implementing a Walking District as a pilot and we are looking for an other neighborhoods to adopt it too. The data bears out that, if a person is hit by a car going 20 mph, 9 out of 10 will survive. When speeds are 30 mph, 5 out of 10 will survive. When the speed of the car increases to 40mph, only 1 out of 10 will survive. We have brought this concept to the attention of Kathleen Murphy and Russ Pulley in regards to Golf Club/Timber/Forrest Park/Woodleigh, and Russ has passed it on to Sgt. Steve Linn and Benny Word at Public Works. The concept has been presented to the mayor's office, the Bike/Pedestrian Advisory Committee, Walk/Bike Nashville, and a group interested in increasing health in Nashville via the Health Dept. So far, there seems to be strong support.

We would like to gauge the level of interest in pursuing this idea for neighborhoods by asking you to fill out a survey. In essence, we see the Walking District as an inexpensive way to quickly increase the safety and enjoyability of walking in our community, in lieu of getting a sidewalk on every side street.

Walking District Survey

We're conducting a survey and your input would be appreciated. Click the link below to start the survey. Thank you for your participation!

Monday, October 24, 2016

Food for thought...a way to raise money for a clear and uniform sidewalk plan for Nashville with a completion date?

CHARITY MILES

MOVE WITH PURPOSE

Get moving with Charity Miles every day. Walk your dog, grab a coffee, go for a run, bike around the neighborhood, shovel some snow. You’ll help earn money for charity and feel great all day!

KA-CHING! ($$$)

So far, we've earned over $1.7M for charity!! This Challenge Term (ending May 31, 2017), we’ll pay out our sponsorship pool (currently $500,000) to our charity partners in proportion to the Charity Miles done for each. For more information, please see our Terms of Service.

SUPPORT GREAT CHARITIES

Choose from over thirty world-class charities! All of our partners are leaders in their fields.

THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS

We’re grateful to be sponsored by forward-thinking brands like Humana, Johnson & Johnson, and Chobani! And we hope you will be too. We can’t do this without their support!

Sunday, October 23, 2016

We are a group of fun and enthusiastic walkers scattered across the Greater Vancouver area who love to exercise and socialize. The organizer, the assistant organizers, and the event hosts are all volunteers. No-one pays us to do this - we just enjoy walking and enjoy sharing our knowledge about places with other people.

Your event organizers spend time and effort describing the walks as completely as possible, so please take the time to read the event description carefully, and maybe re-read it just before the walk so you'll know everything you need to know.

Our walks can be anywhere in the Lower Mainland area, depending on where the organizer of the particular walk ("event") has decided to go. To see where we've walked, check out the list of our past walks, with clickable links to the details about each one.

Some of our walks begin after a 15-minute catch-up time for those who cannot make it to the posted start time. Please read the description carefully to see if it is one of those or not.

If your plans change, please change your RSVP. You can do that any time up to the start of the walk. All walks will take place rain or shine, unless otherwise stated in the event description.

The walks may be round trip walks, which return to the starting point, or they may be "one-way" walks. If you have arrived by public transportation at the starting point, the "one-way" walks will be no problem for you, but if you have arrived by car at the starting point, you will either need to take public transportation back to the starting point, or make prior arrangements with at least one other driver to leave one car at the end point and carpool back to the starting point together.

There is no obligation to attend our walks regularly. Some of our group members are "fair weather walkers" and only enjoy walking when the sun is shining. Some members may decide to take a year or even two off from our group. Come only when you want to.

All of our walks are free of charge. The organizer pays $9.00/month to the Meetup organization, and she's happy to do it. If you want to show her your appreciation of this, you can buy her a cup of coffee once or twice.

If you have an idea for a walk, please post it on the discussion board. If you are interested in leading a walk of your own, we suggest that you come along on at least a couple of our walks so you can get a feel for our "style". Then let the organizer know and she will more than likely make you an event organizer.

All types of people are welcome to join us on our walks. Your ethnic group, religious background, gender, marital status, job, make no difference to us, and all ages are welcome, as well. Of course we hope anyone needing assistance will come with someone who will look out for them and help them as need be. Your organizers are not trained to help people with disabilities nor to look after children.

Here are some of the different types of walks we have:

Weekend walks, which tend to be longer and paced at a normal walking pace. These are exploration walks, where you will see some areas of the Lower Mainland that you might not have seen before.

Evening repeating fast walks, which are very fast paced - for a nice low-impact work-out. These tend to be in the same area every time, so you always know what you're going to get.

Weekday repeating walks, for folks who do not have a 9-5 work schedule. These tend to be a smaller group, and the walks are not as long as the weekend walks. The pace is a normal walking pace.

If you have questions about a particular walk that has been posted, please contact that event host, whose name will be labelled as such on the RSVP list. If you have questions about the group in general, please contact the main organizer.

Saturday, October 22, 2016

'There aren't a lot of children riding bikes around here. It has taken me a few days in the Houston suburbs to diagnose this strange absence, this latter-day version of the dog that doesn't bark. Today is a sultry and sunshiny day, the kind that during my own childhood would have been cause for my mother to shoo me into the cul-de-sac for the rest of the afternoon. But here on this lushly landscaped street, just footsteps from Palmer Elementary School in Missouri City, TX, all is quiet'. The indoor child.All Joy and No FunBy Jennifer SeniorSounds like Nashville...Nashville has a lot of work to do to provide safe and comfortable infrastructure for its pedestrians. Here's to hoping the current administration puts into action a uniform plan with a completion date.

Friday, October 21, 2016

Thought the passage below was a fitting adjunct argument for Nashville to consider as it works towards implementing Walking Districts in select neighborhoods such as Hillsboro / West End.

From All Joy and No Fun by Jennifer Senior

'Parents would doubtless feel a lot less pressure to keep their children buy or entertained - and more confident about their kids' ability to make their own fun - if they felt comfortable sending their children outdoors. But increasingly they don't. Here, again, is another paradoxical consequence of our sentimentality: the more economically useless children have become, the more aggressively we've tried to protect them.One can discern the outlines of this trend by simply studying the history of the modern playground. In 1905, there were fewer than 100 playgrounds nationwide. By 1917, there were nearly 4000 because reformers had agitated tightly for them. Before then, children played in the streets. But suddenly they needed protection from a brand-new and lethal invention: the automobile. And so, in 1906, reformers established the Playground Association of America. Today, children lead even more cloistered lives. They grow up in homes with padded coffee tables, plugged-up electrical sockets, and gated stairways. They go to playgrounds that offer protection not only from the streets but from their own equipment, with swings as snug as diapers and spongy surfaces to break falls from the jungle equipment. So perhaps it's no surprise that by the time children get big enough to venture out on their own - to the grocery store, to a friend's house down the street - their parents feel strange about letting them go, believing the world is a dangerous place. The number of children who walk or bike to school dropped from 42 percent in 1969 to 16 percent in 2001, according to a survey by the Department of Transportation, even though crimes against children have been steadily dealing for the last couple of decades, making this moment in time perhaps as safe for children as it's ever been.'http://thesidewalkfoundation.org --- to vote for where you want a sidewalkhttp://shadeparadenashville.blogspot.com/2016/06/walking-districts-nashville.html --- to read more about Walking Districts

Monday, October 17, 2016

All to often, in Nashville & the surrounding area, there is literally no infrastructure for walkers.

The photo below is so familiar for many of our roadways. This is NOT SAFE & frankly not acceptable. If you haven't let your councilpersons know that safe sidewalks are a top priority - this is the time to do it.

The deadly incident below occurred, at 1:30pm, when a husband and wife were out for a walk.

Our beautiful, sweet, caring and loving friend Dineen Cottrell is in the fight of her life right now! She was involved in a tragic accident that has left her in critical condition. Dineen lost her loving husband Bobby in the accident and now the family will face not only medical expenses but also funeral expenses for Bobby. Her beautiful daughter Summer has lost her amazing step-dad and is now focused on helping Dineen heal one day at a time. Let's all come together and help these amazing people! Dineen has such a giving heart! It is now our turn to open our hearts to her! Everyone keep praying hard!!!

Thursday, October 13, 2016

One of my primary interests in helping Nashville become more walkable is due to health concerns. I see a lot of patients in my clinic with respiratory disease and a sedentary lifestyle. Not a good recipe for health.Kids should get 60 minutes of activity every day and vigorous activity three days a week. One of the main barriers I have heard over the years is concern for safety. Parents are not willing to let their children out of the house to walk and explore their neighborhoods because there is no sidewalk. Skip down to 'geography' and read more about TN. This is no simple matter - it is going to take a major commitment to fix. I have been looking to our new mayor & have yet to see a comprehensive plan with an completion date.

Tennessee’s top 10 causes of death

Barriers to better health have serious consequences. Studies have found certain behaviors may contribute strongly to each of the top 10 causes of death in Tennessee. The infographics below from Better Tennessee magazine, show these causes and the risk factors that may contribute to them.

Thursday, October 6, 2016

And, tomorrow (10/7/2016) is Walk to Work Day. I am definitely excited to get out on foot early in the morning! Have my route planned and timed. Wish I could say that it will be easy - there will be a few places that are downright dicey - but it is important to show support.

Walkers, are by nature, fairly individual. We don't advocate for ourselves the way the bike riding community has. If you support better walkability in Nashville, consider putting on your walking shoes and heading out in the morning - would be great to see a full turnout. Weather should be amazing!#walktoworkNash

Walk Bike Nashville Event:

Walk to work tomorrow! Share your stories on social media using #walktoworknash. We'll also be hosting a pop-up breakfast on the Pedestrian Bridge from 7-9am. So walk or bike on by to say hi, get a cup of coffee, and snack on your way to work.

Wednesday, October 5, 2016

Personally, I am excited for a project that is designed only for pedestrians - this is a shift in perspective for Nashville that fully I support. Of course, I would LOVE to also see a commitment to this kind of well-designed infrastructure in the neighborhoods, too for walkers. I hope this is a start to a more universal vision of well-designed uniform walkability for all of Nashville.

$18 Million Pedestrian Bridge Still Bothers Some Nashville Officials, But Not Enough To Stop It

Nashville officials compare a bridge diagram to the land where it may be built to connect The Gulch with Sobro.

TONY GONZALEZ / WPLN

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A gaggle of Nashville officials took a walking field trip Monday to see the future location of a controversial pedestrian bridge. And while revisiting the project’s history and the possible designs for the walkway, several questioned its $18 million price tag.

Yet for all the criticisms, the project is still on track for a smooth approval by the Metro Council.

The bridge is supposed to span over several downtown train tracks to connect two areas: The Gulch and Sobro. It would serve foot traffic to the Music City Center, several hotels and concert venues, and the high-rise residents in the densely developed Gulch neighborhood. (View the project's website.)

Despite quite a bit of hand-wringing, the bridge and its funding were first approved under former mayor Karl Dean.

For Councilman Steve Glover, the question remains: Why spend so much on a downtown project when other countywide projects languish?

“I think it’s ridiculous,” Glover said. “We’re talking about spending $18 million to put a bridge across here, when you can walk one block that way or this way and get to the same place.”

Glover, who voted against the bridge before, said he stands firm.

“It was never palatable to me,” he said.

The location of a future pedestrian bridge is already marked on 10th Avenue in the Sobro area of downtown Nashville.

CREDIT TONY GONZALEZ / WPLN

Glover was joined by Councilman John Cooper.

“Is this the bridge that we need? Is it the right bridge for us? Is it connective for us? Or is it really just helping just a very few people go from point to point?” Cooper asked. “You really don’t want one of these Nashville moments, where you land [a route] and you can’t really go anywhere.”

Some answers came from Metro Planning and Metro Public Works, whose top leaders said the bridge is a crucial connection that will encourage development. They said the route has been sought after for years — ever since the Sobro Master Plan found shortcomings in east-west travel across downtown.

Planning Director Doug Sloan said the existing routes along 8th Avenue and Demonbreun Street are dangerous and unaccommodating to travelers with disabilities.

“This connection at this location does a great deal,” he said.

Opposition Peters Out

While the council members came out swinging on the sidewalk, opposition didn’t amount to votes at a Metro Council budget committee meeting about an hour after the site visit.

Glover got an assurance that the project could not exceed $18 million without further consideration by the council.

And some members made symbolic pleas for infrastructure spending in their neighborhoods.

But a large contingent warned that going back on the bridge project would erase the prior Metro Council’s decision, which itself included fierce debate and substantial research.

“If we start dismantling bills or programs that were created by the previous council … we’re going to set a precedent,” said Councilman Bill Pridemore. “If the funds have been appropriated, and the project approved, I think we need to leave it alone.”

This rendering from Oct. 3 is the latest depiction of the Gulch pedestrian bridge, although officials say design work has just begun.

CREDIT METRO PUBLIC WORKS

Others spoke in favor of a related land deal that would generate roughly $8 million for the Nashville Metropolitan Transit Authority, which currently owns property near the proposed bridge.

The sale of that parcel would help Metro obtain the land it prefers for the bridge, which would start in Sobro near the intersection of 10th Avenue and Lea Street (near Cannery Row) and cross over into the Gulch at 11th Avenue.

The land deal — which awaits Metro Council approval on Tuesday night — is what triggered the latest round of discussion.

And within an hour of the field trip, the council’s budget committee gave a unanimous endorsement to move forward with the deal and the bridge.

Gulch-Sobro pedestrian bridge undergoes design overhaul

Instead, new conceptual designs of a planned 700-foot-long pedestrian bridge to connect the Gulch and SoBro neighborhoods now look more, well, pedestrian.

To the chagrin of people who want something bolder, the Metro Public Works Department has — for now — scaled back the conceptual design of an $18 million Gulch-SoBro pedestrian bridge Metro is preparing to build. City officials say the decision was made to keep the project within budget and to minimize its footprint.

In a statement, Jenna Smith, a Public Works spokeswoman, said new conceptual designs of the bridge — now illustrated as a traditional arch bridge — are still subject to change. She said a public engagement process will take place to help determine a final look.

“The design was altered in order to move forward with the project,” Smith said in an email on the new designs released Thursday. “It expands flexibility for property owners' future use(s) by reducing the footprint of the bridge as it was previously conceived.”

The Metro Public Works Department has scaled back the conceptual design of a planned $18 million Gulch-SoBro pedestrian bridge. (Photo: Metro Public Works)

The Gulch-SoBro pedestrian bridge was first pushed by former Mayor Karl Dean, who landed Metro Council approval for its construction during his final year in office. The project would connect two fast-growing downtown Nashville neighborhoods currently severed by CSX railroad tracks.

Though the pedestrian bridge has been criticized by some who have demanded greater investments in residential neighborhoods, Mayor Megan Barry has opted to advance the project forward. Earlier this week, the mayor’s office announced a land deal with the office complex Cummins Station to acquire easements needed for the bridge. The council will vote on the transaction Tuesday.

Smith said primary design changes include: a bridge realignment on the east side of the railroad tracks near Cummins Station; a more direct connection and elimination of the S-curve shape; a new pedestrian-oriented plaza on the SoBro side of the bridge; and the move from a single-tower cable bridge to a basket-handle network street arch bridge. Plans for a green space element on the bridge remain.

Many in Nashville’s design community say they are disappointed by the new bridge concepts, noting that the more ambitious design was shown during a previous public input process led by Dean’s administration.

(Photo: Submitted )

Some are holding out hope for a return to the previous design.

“It’s not quite as visually appealing as the other one,” said Gary Gaston, executive director of the Nashville Civic Design Center. “During the public process that everyone went through, that was the design and the visual that was shown. Now, for this to come back and say this is the design, there needs to be some explanation.

“I think people were expecting something much more beautiful and special that would be a design statement by the city. So, I would like to hear more information and see if we can get back to something that we were shown.”

Original designs were produced three years ago by the Nashville-based architectural firm Hawkins Partners. Smith said the project team remains the same.

The Gulch-SoBro pedestrian bridge, which was first identified in the city’s 2013 SoBro Master Plan, has previously been billed not just as a way to connect Nashville’s two fastest-growing downtown neighborhoods, but as a destination itself.

Councilman Freddie O’Connell, who represents the area, said he believes the upcoming public design phase will provide an opportunity to tweak the bridge’s designs. He said it’s his understanding that renderings shown by Public Works are meant to simply match engineering specifications.

“I don’t think what Public Works put out there is going to be the final product,” he said, adding that he hopes the final design is different than what was released this week. “I guess you've got to have a starting point for the conversation."

Construction on the pedestrian bridge isn’t expected to begin for another 10 to 12 months, according to Smith. She said the bridge’s design and construction process is expected to take an additional 18 months.